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Warned my nephew off sand-lime for a garden wall, then watched him go with a cheaper CMU mix and it cost him a redo
Quick heads up for anyone taking on a small garden wall this spring (I know, I know, everybody wants one done before Memorial Day). My nephew asked me to look at his 30 foot boundary wall job in Rochester last month. He had two quotes sitting there. One was a solid sand-lime block, the other a cheap CMU that saved him about $180 on the pallet. He went with the cheap one. Two hard frosts later the faces were spalling and he was tearing out 12 courses and eating the labor himself. The block itself isn't the problem, it's how that cheap mix sucks up water and lets it freeze inside. My point is, on anything that stays outside year round, price per block is the wrong number to compare. Compare what it costs to pull it back out. Has anyone had luck sealing a cheaper block before laying, or is that just putting off the same problem?
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hayden_rivera7d ago
Two hard frosts and the faces were already spalling? That cheap mix must have been drinking water like a sponge.
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